Shutting That Hole In His Face
by spikessweetgirl75
Summary: Molly Brown takes action to save the people in the water. But first, there's a coward to contend with. This is how I think Molly should have handled the situation.


Molly sat there, listening to the screams and the pleas for help. She shivered in the cold as she heard a whistle blow somewhere and a loud request for the boats to return. Titanic was gone and all that was left were people in need of help. Mothers, daughters, husbands, and sons. Some of them her friends, some of them strangers. How could they just sit there and ignore them? Some of those screams belonged to some of these women's husband's surely.

She looked at the harsh looking crewman that was in charge of their boat. She didn't think much of him. When they first called for the boats to come back, long before Titanic disappeared beneath the waves, he had flat out refused. But now...when there were people dying, when they could hear nothing but the screams...surely he wouldn't refuse now.

"I say we pick up our oars and return, pick up some more. It's not like we don't have the room," Molly stood up, wanting to rally her fellow survivors, who just sat there, staring at her as if she had lost her mind.

"Are you out of your mind? No," The crew member glared. How dare this woman stand up and give orders on his boat?

"People need help out there! How can you ignore that? We go and pick up what we can and then..."

The crew member was annoyed now. "You don't understand. If we go back, they'll swamp the boat. They'll pull us right down, I'm telling you."

Molly refused to back down. She glared at this coward of a man. How dare he even suggest that they ignore the poor souls in the freezing water? Did he have no heart? "Oh knock it off. You're scaring me." She turned to the boat full of women, and one man. She looked at them with a fire in her heart. There were lives that needed to be saved and she wasn't going to let this weasel of a man stop her. "Come on, girls. Grab an oar. Let's go."

"Are you out of your mind?" The crew member, Hichens, if she remembered correctly, screeched. "We're in middle of the North Atlantic! Now do you people want to live or do you want to die?!"

Molly looked around, looking for an ally. Someone to help overrule this horrible man. But no one came forward. They all looked at her with scared, tear-filled eyes. Hichens' words had snuffed out whatever bravery these people had. Her voice was full of disappointment and maybe a touch of judgment. "I don't understand a one of you. What's the matter with you? It's your men out there! There's plenty of room for more!"

"And there will be one less on this boat...if you don't shut that hole in your face!" Hichen's screeched.

At first Molly was shocked. Even when she was poor, never had anyone spoken to her like that before. The shock soon turned to anger. She picked up an oar, just like she had requested for her fellow survivors to do, and swung, hitting Hichen's in his miserable head, knocking him off the boat and into the icy cold Atlantic. "There we go, girls! One less on this boat! Now Ruth, pick up that oar and let's get moving! We don't have much time! Anyone who has any objections, you can join Mr. Hichens in his nice swim! Any objections?"

There were no objections, just women grabbing an oar, afraid of angering Molly anymore than she already was. She may be new money, but she was obviously dangerous. "You , my good man. Pick up an oar too!"

Molly's boat saved a good many people that night, including Ruth's daughter Rose and Jack, the boy she had loaned a tuxedo to. Ruth hugged her daughter to her, looking up at Molly with brand new respect. If it wasn't for Molly's determination, her Rose could have died. "Just wrap them both up Ruth and let's head back. I think that's all we're going to be able to hold..."

After the rescue, the papers told the stories of the survivors, but none caught the imagination more than the story of The Unsinkable Molly Brown and how she had shut the hole in the cowardly Hichen's face, saving even more people from a watery grave.


End file.
